The Devil's Love
by InkBop
Summary: Following Lucrezia and Cesare, from the end of season three, because it ended leaving me wanting so much more to happen between them! Damn it Showtime...
1. Chapter One

**Chapter one: For the Family**

**Picking off right after the end of season 3, because there NEEDED TO BE MORE! :,(**

**(For anyone not up to date, Cesare has just run Lucrezia's husband Alfonso through with his sword, and after trying to save his life, Lucrezia poisoned Alfonso on his request to put him out of his misery as he lay dying, The season ends with Cesare cleaning the blood from Lucrezia as she lies besides her dead husband)**

* * *

><p>"You will be naked, clean, and bloodless again… And mine." Silence followed as Cesare wiped the blood from her face and neck, neither of them looking at each other. The hands that had just killed were incredibly gentle, and his presence quieted the thoughts and emotions that had been choking her. Now she just felt numb, both in mind and body.<p>

Eventually he stopped, "come on sis" he said softly, and when she didn't respond scoped her into his arms and carried her out of the room. As he settled them on to a sofa, his arms wrapped around her, Lucrezia finally turned her face towards Cesare, seeking his eyes with hers. She looked lost, and Cesare's fevered gaze softened. He took her hands and kissed them, "forgive me."

Lucrezia's throat clenched as they she stared into his dark eyes.

Yes she'd forgive him. She couldn't hate him. He wasn't Juan. Is it possible to hate the man you love for killing your husband? As if he could read her thoughts, Cesare leaned forward and pressed a slow hard kiss against her lips. When he pulled away one of his hands remained against her cheek. With half his face in shadow Cesare looked both angelic and demonic, dangerous but beautiful, and Lucrezia felt longing as she gazed at him. While her husband lay dead in her bedroom, his corpse still not cold. She shuddered.

In the past Cesare had never intentionally acted to hurt her, he'd been the one friend in a world of intrigue and scheming who protected her. But this time Cesare had placed his ambitions above her happiness. It hurt, she knew Cesare loved her, but did this signify a decrease in his love? Unless Cesare had acted out of jealousy. She searched his face, but it was too serious to easily read.

"Did you kill my husband for the family brother?" her voiced choked a little on the word _husband_, "or for yourself?"

The shielded look she'd grown to know and hate so much of late came over his handsome face. "He was getting dangerous Lucrezia, our family needs no additional slander at this moment, especially from such a source."

She pulled herself away from him "so for the family, then."

They eyed each other wearily, then Cesare sighed.

"I should go to our father."

"But what will you tell him brother?"

"The truth, I believe" said Cesare with the ghost of a smile. He stood there for a moment, eyes on hers, and his arm twitched slightly towards her. Then he left.

Lucrezia watch her brother stride from the room, and in its emptiness felt the full force of her consciousness reprimanding her for being so easily distracted from the death of her poor, naive husband.

Despite this, or perhaps to hold off conscious a little longer, Lucrezia gravitated to the window, watching as Cesare melted away into the night.

* * *

><p>In the following weeks, the scandal of Alfonso's murder raged throughout Rome, and Lucrezia moved back to her mother's house with Giovanni. Her child seemed as happy as ever, and Lucrezia spent most of her time with him in the gardens when the weather permitted it, sometimes joined by her mother.<p>

"So where does this leave me?" Lucrezia asked her several days after her husband's death. She had hoped her mother would offer her advice without prompting, saving her from admitting that she was unsure. But her family rarely seemed to keep her informed of events until they wanted her to do something, still treating her like the child she had ceased to be years ago.

Vannozza gave her daughter a sad smile, "you shan't marry again for some time, that much I suppose."

"Good. I've had quite enough of husbands, I think we can both agree that they don't seem to suit me".

"You know very well that this is not your fault" said Vannozza firmly, "any man should feel blessed to have you for his wife." Lucrezia shook her head, "not a Borgia wife, mother." And she truly was a Borgia these days, having learned the rules of power from the best, and apparently inheriting an enjoyment for it too.

"Have I lost all claim to Naples?"

Vannozza gave her an appraising look. "That depends, may you be with child?" Lucrezia tossed her curls, "I doubt it."

"Well in that case, there is little real claim, at least not through traditional lines," her mother paused to consider for a moment, "you haven't spoken to Cesare about this? He our closest link to the French at present, and the most involved in their designs upon Naples."

Lucrezia looked away not wanting her emotions to be read. She hadn't seen Cesare since he'd left her on the night of Alfonso's murder, and believed he'd been sleeping at the Vatican. A part of her was relieved, and yet, Lucrezia suspected that her complacency stemmed from the knowledge that he was still in Rome, and she could seek him out if she wanted to. Once Cesare was gone from the city, and beyond her reach, she feared she would return to longing for him. She still didn't know if Cesare killed Alfonso as her brother, or as her lover? She wanted to believe it was the later, but was worried her desire clouded her judgment.

Vannozza broke the silence, "I have yet to ask you about the truth of the rumours surrounding Alfonso's death, perhaps because I'm afraid of their truth."

Lucrezia paused, "Cesare claims it was an accident."

"But you don't believe him," inquired her mother softly.

"I.. am not sure. The method, I don't believe Cesare could have desired that.." she aired her suspicious slowly. "But the outcome, it removed my confliction with the French acquisition of Naples, and with any death the clearest indicator of its cause is through determining who it benefits."

Her mother gave her a look caught between admiration and regret, "what a world I have placed you in, my dear child. What a world I've placed all by children in. Cesare goes so far in his service of the family that it makes me fearful, and after a lifetime with you father that's no easy feat," she added. "But his love for you has always been Cesare's finest point. So try not to hate him, my dear. He'd be lost without you, and I'm sure he's getting under your father feet at the Vatican."

"You know I could never hate Cesare," Lucrezia murmured, "but I think he needs me little of late, his love is for power."

"My foolish daughter, he holds you dearer than all else in the world."

Lucrezia gave her mother a dubious look.

Vannozza laughed, "since you were children, and to this day" she insisted, pulling Lucrezia to her. Lucrezia returned the embrace, burying her frown in her mother's gown.

Perhaps Cesare did love her, but it was a love he seemed to fear.


	2. Chapter 2

Alfonso was sent back to his family to be buried, and unable to follow him Lucrezia mourned his death in Rome, as best she could, wearing black and rarely leaving her mother's home. It was hardly the first death she'd been exposed to though, and Lucrezia was slightly concerned with how easily she ceased to grieve poor boy.

He hadn't really been a boy of course, yet he had seemed so innocent in the ways of the world that Lucrezia had often thought of him as one. In some ways she was relieved to be rid of him... How quickly their marriage has soured.

Lucrezia's mourning period quickly turned from voluntary grieving, into an increasingly irritating necessity.

The first day she appeared in white Vannozza had pulled her aside, advising her to stay in black a little longer. Lucrezia complied, but as the days passed uneventfully in her mother's house, the itch to be out in the world, doing _something_, grew.

Giovanni was the light of her life, but spending every day with only a child, who could not yet string his words together, for company, was driving her insane.

A desire to see Cesare grew within her like in itch, deep in her chest where she couldn't reach it to scratch for relief.

'_You will be naked, clean, and bloodless again… And mine'_ Cesare had said those words without a sliver of doubt in his tone, and while she'd been too numb to respond at the time, remembering them now brought the blood to her face and neck.

But Cesare had disappeared into the Vatican, and was now away from Rome with the French. The dark stories of his actions rippling back from him to Rome, a growing pool of blood staining Italy.

And she remained at home, chained in her black veils, maintaining the appearance of propriety.

_Must I be the one to pay penitence for your sins Cesare?_

Trapped in this situation, the voice of her father, calling out to her as she walked in the gardens, was highly welcome.

She ran towards him with a smile.

"Ah, come my dear" said Rodrigo with a smile, drawing her to him and brushing back her morning veil, which had fallen partially across her face, "we would have you remove that veil."

For reply Lucrezia reached up and pulled the veil from her curls, tossing it into the air with a laugh. Rodrigo laughed with her, but surprise blossomed in his eyes.

"We are ..glad you agree that the time for morning is past. We would have you come to the Vatican, my dear, and learn about the French court from our new Cardinal, Georges d'Amboise. What do you think of that?"

"I am not unacquainted with the workings of the French court as is, father," Lucrezia replied, searching his face quizzically.

"Ah, of course, but from d'Amboise there is much more you could learn."

"But to what end, father?" Surely he didn't plot to married her to the French, so soon after Alfonso's death. And it would be unlike her father to bind two of his children to the same power.

"The French will need to appoint a regent in Naples. Should they take it, which is likely," he said watching her closely.

Lucrezia's lips parted in shock. Granted a position without a husband, who would have thought it possible?

Rodrigo widened his eyes at her playfully, reading her thoughts, and Lucrezia felt a wide smile grow across her face.

* * *

><p>The next day Lucrezia made her way to the Vatican, followed by a pair of her mother's guards, but finally free from the attires of morning.<p>

It felt good to be out in the streets of Rome again, the people parting before her, wearing a bright dress, and with no veil pulling at her hair and irritating her face.

Once in the Vatican she was led by one of her fathers men to a small comfortable room, intended for study, where a man in the robes of a cardinal stood waiting. He was addressed to her as Georges d'Amboise, and at she entered crossed the room towards her and gave a low bow.

"Lucrezia Borgia," he said, reaching for her hand and kissing it. "I had always believed in France that we had the fortune to possess the most beautiful women in all the world, yet you have proved me wrong."

It was flattery, not lechery, and Lucrezia laughed, playing her role.

"Then I ought to introduce you to my mother, to prove you wrong more fully."

"And yet I should be happy to be thus proven wrong," said d'Amboise with a practiced smile.

"You were chamberlain to Charles VIII?"

"Correct, and it is now my honour to serve as his ambassador to your father in Rome."

Lucrezia met with d'Amboise most days over the following weeks. Sometimes he instructed her in maddening detail on the customs of the French court, but moe often he would tell her stories about the people in it. Lucrezia liked hearing the stories, which were sometimes almost as scandalous as her own life, and suspected that d'Amboise enjoyed telling them.

"Do you miss France," she asked him one afternoon.

"Rome is unlike all else," he said with a smile, "instead of a King's court, with beautiful women, and intrigue and scandal, there's the Vatican, which also has its own scandal and intrigue, but where sadly men in robes have replaced all the beautiful women."

Lucrezia laughed.

"So you can imagine how glad I am with my new duty," he continued with a wink, and she repressed the urge to roll her eyes.

"But of course the Vatican is my home now, and a truly magnificent one." D'Amboise added earnestly, aware as ever who her father was.

She liked d'Amboise, he hid intelligence behind his flattery, but she sensed that he was a good man, which was unusual for someone with ambition... However after being deceived by Frederico in Naples, Lucrezia was hesitant to trust in her impressions, and was careful not to let her guard down too far around d'Amboise. After all, there might come a time when they were no longer allies.

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><p>Cesare was back in Rome, followed by his retinue of bastard lieutenants, and his shadow of dangerous men. It seemed like the whole city was trading stories about the trouble they were stirring up, his cutthroats breaking into fights in disreputable establishment, while his lieutenants broke the hearts of the young women, as they bedded, by the sounds of it, half the city...<p>

The rumors were all Lucrezia had to go on, Cesare hadn't come to their mothers, and she hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of him during her frequent visits to the Vatican. A_s though he was ignoring her_.

Lucrezia's blood boiled at that thought, he was the one who had murdered her husband; she was the one who should be ignoring _him_.

He was denying her her right to rage at him. How could she order him away if he stayed absent of his own volition.

All Lucrezia could do was stop herself from seeking him out. Surely Cesare would cave eventually, after all he _did_ care about her, didn't he?

* * *

><p>Several weeks later she was spared the answer to that question, with a chance meeting ending their stalemate for them.<p>

Lucrezia was attending the marriage ceremony of the sister of one of the cardinals, and on entering the room and gazing over the crowds squeezed into it, she found her eyes suddenly locked with Cesare's, who was staring at her. Her heart throbbed violently, as though there was suddenly too much blood in her body. His eyes continued to pierce hers for a moment, before forcing his head away Cesare broke their eye contact, resuming a conversation with one of his bastard lieutenants, Paolo Orsini she believed.

Cesare's hair had grown, the dark curls tumbling past his eyes and framing his jaw, and he was more tanned. As she stared at him from across the room, Lucrezia fought against the need to touch that face, those dark curls, have his eyes stare at her again.

The stalemate was going to end. She decided. Tonight.

D'Amboise appeared suddenly at her side, asking permission to introduce her to a friend of the King of France, and she pulled her eyes from Cesare and complied.

While she made banter, hopefully witty but she wasn't paying enough attention to be sure, Lucrezia's mind was occupied with Cesare.

He hadn't looked towards her area of the room once since he'd turned away, and appeared to be making conversation like normal, but there was a slight glow on his cheeks that didn't fade.

The evening deepened, and she finally saw Cesare fade out of the group he'd been talking to, and slink into one of the rooms more shadowed corners, where he leaned against the wall, frowning at his feet and apparently deep in his own thoughts.

Perfect.

She excused herself and wove through the room towards Cesare, willing herself to appear calm.

It felt almost surreal to approach him.

She trod carefully, afraid that if she rushed Cesare would escape, or disappear.

Cesare didn't notice her approach until she stood before him, and looked up at her in shock.

"You haven't greeted me brother, I feel quite ignored" she said, aiming for a playful tone.

There was a pause while he stared at her.

She remained silent and raised an eyebrow, challenging him not to reply to her.

"Sorry sis" he said finally, his voice rough, "and you know that it's impossible for you to be ignored, I haven't seen you alone this evening once."

"I didn't realize you'd been watching."

Cesare tried to hide a grimace, "you know I'll always keep an eye on you."

There was an intense undercurrent as he spoke, and Lucrezia felt herself flush.

An uncomfortable silence grew between them.

Lucrezia broke it with a strangled laugh, "it feels as though we're quarrelled."

"But we never quarrel," he said, his voice thick.

"No? Instead you're just hiding away from me." She flashed him a challenging look. "Why haven't you been at mothers?"

"I feared my presence may be unwelcome to you," his dark eyes searched hers.

"Then you underrate my love for you brother," she frowned, "although I was angry" she added truthfully. He looked down at her seriously, the shadows of their corner playing across his face.

Cesare cleared his throat, "I also feared that it may not be prudent for you to act too fond of me, at the very present."

Because forgiving him too readily for murdering her husband would make it look like she had sanctioned the act, and add fuel to the rumor that they were lovers. Lucrezia had thought of that.

"They can all hang themselves for all I care" she said fiercely.

A wicked grin flashed across his face, "good," he replied equally fiercely. Then he grew serious. "But you should be careful, the trouble with rumor is that it draws eyes to you, which limits your freedom."

"I have freedom now then?"

"More than you did in Naples."

That wasn't hard, she'd been a literal prisoner in Naples. Still, she had her intelligence and her beauty. They would be her power, and her tools to freedom.

"You'll return to mothers," she told Cesare firmly, biting her lips and frowning at him, "she says she misses you."

Lucrezia saw a flight of unease in his dark eyes, but after staring at her silently for a long pause, he finally nodded.

Thanks the God's I still have that much power, at least, she thought.

Cesare turned his face away from her, scrutinizing the room, and followed his example Lucrezia found far too many eyes watching them for her liking. Cesare gave her a significant look, "I think we must rejoin those vultures sis."

Lucrezia laughed, looking out at all the vultures in their robes and tunics and cardinals hats. She met Cesare's eyes, and saw them lighten.

"Farewell sis" he gave her a small mock bow. Lucrezia curtsied in return with another laugh, quiet so the vultures wouldn't hear, and held out her hand to him thoughtlessly.

Cesare froze, still bowing before her, and stared at the proffered hand for a moment before taking it in his own, and drawing it slowly to his lips. Lucrezia shivered, feeling his breath more than his lips as Cesare brushed them against her skin. As he straightened she heard him swallow dryly, and when their eyes met his seemed darker than usual. It was Lucrezia who turned away first, feeling the force of that gaze on her neck and shoulders as she rejoined the company in the room.

But her heart was light. To see Cesare, and speak with him after such a long absence had relieved a melancholy within her that she'd been only half aware of carrying.


End file.
